Domestic Violence Services

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Sheltering

"Fourteen years ago, the Salvos helped me when I needed it most. If it wasn't for them, I don't know where, or who I would be today."

-- Tessa Jetson (see her story below)

The Salvation Army has a strong commitment to the family, but for some Australian women and children, the family home can be a violent and unsafe place.

The Salvation Army has a long-standing history of providing services for women. In recent years this work has focused on providing refuge shelter for women escaping domestic violence.

Refuges operated by The Salvation Army are open to all women escaping domestic violence who are in need of safe accommodation and personal support.

Our women's refuges generally are prepared to take women with additional difficulties such as those with a psychiatric disability or with drug and alcohol related problems.

Over recent years an increasing number of women awaiting refugee status are seeking accommodation in these shelters as they have no income and lack access to accommodation within the community.

In common with a number of other women's refuges, The Salvation Army provides child care facilities within these services to ensure that both children and their mothers are able to be adequately assisted.

Every day is getting brighter ...

Tessa Jetson spent many years in a tumultuous and violent relationship with the father of her children. He started taking drugs after having 3 children together and became violent ... She also put up with severe mental and emotional abuse. For a long time, Tessa and her children moved backwards and forwards between friends’ and family homes, until she finally found the strength to get her own home and begin a new life

One night in the new home however, she was attacked by the father of her children. ‘This was the last straw,’ said Tessa. She knew she needed help to permanently change her and her children’s lives.

Tessa sought protection and solace in a Salvation Army women’s refuge. It was here that she found the support and counsel she needed to overcome the pain she’d endured. She also had help finding permanent accommodation and furniture, and the care workers at the refuge helped her to get a final restraining order. The level of violence he’d inflicted on Tessa was so bad she was awarded $250,000 in compensation, which Tessa believes she will never receive.

Soon after she left the refuge she went back to studying and completed numerous self-help and motivational programs. She is a now a singer, actor and model. She owns two houses, a new car and runs her own telecommunications company. Her children are happy and healthy and are all doing very well.
“I have been broke, homeless, suicidal, depressed and felt totally hopeless. I want to reach out to other women to help them take the steps to move forward. I believe that my children are great because I left that situation. I don’t know what they would be today if I didn’t leave that abuse ...

"It’s a huge task to leave a destructive relationship and raise your children on your own, but life becomes an amazing journey when you do."

To help The Salvation Army's domestic violence programs, Tessa has recorded the CD "Every Day Is Getting Brighter" to inspire women around the world to be strong. Tessa produced the CD with own funds, and is donating all profits to The Salvation Army. Listen to one of her songs: